We have just finished the annual District Conference, this year at Chester. What a neat city. The conference venue was at the Chester racecourse which I understand is the longest running racecourse in England - grass track of 9 furlongs called "the roodie" because of the very old stone rood in the centre area. I walked the 9 furlongs as well as part of the city wall, a stone fortress wall which encircle the city centre, built by the Normans or Romans or someone long ago.
It was a fantastic weekend with many great speakers including ourselves (GSE Distict 5550) - we did very well I thought and so did a lot of others judging by the comments I received.
There was a representative from RI, Alistair Davies and another from RIBI, Gordon McInally who both gave A1 speeches of welcome - funny and inspiring. You don't really know what you will get from these reps but these 2 were fantastic. I loved Gordon's Scottish accent too.
It was exciting to hearTom Henderson, the founder of Shelterbox. I got to meet him and I shook his hand for Gailmarie Anderson as she had asked me too. I included her words of thanks "for his enduring inspiration and gift of hope for humanity through his creative invention of the shelterbox" in my speech. The DG (Barry Preen and the aforemention reps of RI and RIBI slept in a shelterbox tent on the racecourse on Friday night, raising £450. This was topped up by the DGE to buy one shelter box.
Friday night I attended the Rotary dinner with many of my new friends from the Wellington Club whom I have dubbed "the wellies" (This is the DG's club too). Who did I happen to be seated beside? Well she asked me if I came from anywhere near Nee-pa-wa. I said yes and that she must know Pat and Ivan Traill very good friends of mine. Her name was Norma Friar and saw Pat at the Inner Wheel mtg in Manchester a few days earlier. What a coincidence. Also the Sgt at Arms was a policeman who had been stationed at Mablethorpe, Lincs about the same time I was teaching at Alford, Lincs. He knew Roger Reeve, the bobbie we had taken a picture of 42 years ago and then remet 5 years ago.
The Saturday night black tie affair was just that - everyone in their finery, Brennan and I in our suits and Jody, Alicia and Shaunna in wonderful new black frocks. We made an impressive group. And do these Rotarians know how to dance - hardly a spot on the dancefloor all night.
We had met the outgoing GSE Team, which will come to Canada in May-June, for lunch earlier. They are a great bunch and should provide enjoyment for Districtt 5550 when we host them. So Clubs get in you requests to be a host.
Sunday Am I expected to be a simple windup but they saved some of the Best for Last as we were treated to some fine speakers once again. Specifically Heny Olonga who was the first black cricketer to play for the national side of Zimbabwe. Besides being an excellent and humourous speaker he is a very accomplished tenor and received a standing ovation which brought on an encore. He sang "Raise Me Up" and a compositio of his own "Rise Again"
Tina Coetzer, a Youth Exchange student from 1995 gave an excellent presentation too.
I have made many new friends over the past 2 weeks and it was wonderful to see a lot of them there. They have all been so kind and welcoming to us all.
I could write a lot more but my back and fingers are giving out so I will just say,
Thank You for a terrific weekend. Leader Dave.
The Conference Oct. 14-16
Vocational Visit to schools Oct. 12/11
Wed. Oct.12. Another vocational day and I was off to visit 3 schools. Charles Freeman picked me up at 9:00 am. He has a wide background in education and is recently retired. He has been head of 2 of the schools we are to visit and sits on the Board of Governors of the Sixth Form College - Stoke on Trent, which we visited first.
It is a brand new building with 1100 students approx. Just 2 years - ages 17& 18 mainly. Mostly it is a preparation to University with students writing A-level exams.
What a building. 3 stories with different faculties on each floor and a tall central open area. Each floor has a staffroom/workarea with many computer stations and a student work area with even more computer stations. The counsellors have their work area and offices connected to this student area - great ideaThe book library is v. small, containing only a few old books - just for looks I think. Paul mangnall, the deputy head was very accommodating spending 2 hours with us. Everyone has a ID card around theur nick - it is swiped when entering a class (attendance recorded into the school computer database. Moodle is the software - it does everything from course outlines and lesson summaries to homework submission, attendance and marks. \students can access from home and parents have some access too.
Next to Wolstanton High School. An old grammar school building but with modern ideas in running the school. The head is Alan Aston, a passionate exuberant leader of over 1000 students. Charles was the previous Head. It was apparent that both are loved by the staff. The school is split into 4 sub schools with 3 or so disciplines per unit (not of the same ilk) Eg. Math - Hist - and Domestic Sci. These teachers are in charge of their sudents for pastoral care, course TT etc. Maybe I have the specifics wrong but the idea is to create a smaller group to know the students better.
The physical building reminded me of the grammar school I taught in many years ago, but the organization of it was far superior.
more later, Dave
Mon. Oct. 10
Monkey Forest.
Mid morning was the visit to the monkey forest. It has been in operation for approx 7 years. What a neat place. The monkeys come from N. Africa in the mountains. Their natural habitat and climate is not a lot different than here in England. The reserve is owned by a firm that has similar reserves in France and germany. In fact these monkeys came from there and thus their adjustment was not too great.
At feeding time we had a talk and demo from one of the naturalists. The monkeys were called (whistled) out. It appeared that they came out in order of hierarchy of the family structure. Part way through the demo-talk one of the females did something to cause a stir (I am sure it must have been a female), got all the boys going and we were treated to a chase scrap. Actually no real fighting mostly screeching and chasing. The head ape has henchmonkeys and keeps everyone inb order by forming alliances etc.
Must leave for the next days activities. Dave.
The Priory School Visitation - Fri. Oct. 7
Friday was our Vocational day and I (Dave) went to The Priory School in Shrewsbury, a year 7 - 11 school. It is a very progressive school with many activities going on. Firstly, I sat in on an administration meeting with the head teacher (Candy Garbett) and staff. What a professional team she has. I attended 3 classes - a year 9 English class, a year 10 Science class and a year 7 math class. Loads of fun.
In the English class I had trouble figuring out what was going on until I relized that some the students were role playing the book's characters. Neat idea. She was trying to teach what empathy was and it fooled me.
The Science teacher was reviewing heat transfer, conduction, convection and got into a discussion of home heating and insulation. The students were quite interested when I spoke of our levels of insulation and cold -40 temps.
The math guy was a younger teacher with lots of Zip. A version of Murray Hart. He invited me to circulate and help, which of course I jumped at the opportunity. I even got up to the board and taught a bit. The topic was Surface area and the questions were to find the S.A. of a cuboid and then a 5 sided prism. Most did OK with some help on the triangular bits needed. Like at home in neepawa they don't like to show their work, so I let one bright lad follow alon with a mistake I knew he made. Of course he had to start over since their was no work to follow. Did he learn the importance of showing work. Not likely, it will take a few more times of extra repetitions to learn that lesson. Then the neat part was the final question (working backwards) Find the dimensions of a solid that gives a surface area of 100 sq. cm. keeps the good kids busy. As they were leaving one lad asked about finding the radius of a shere of S.A = 100 sq. cm. I doubt he knows the formula but it proved that the lesson plan was a good one. Boy did I have fun.
Jet Set
We've made it to the Regina airport and are waiting for the plane to take us away. Our GSE gear came in too! Check it out.
See you soon, England!
3 days to go
Hey everybody. Just 3 days to go. Are we ready? I phoned England yesterday, just to make sure it was there, I guess. Not really. Thought I'd best make sure we had all the correct international codes for our families to make calls to there. I spoke to John Sayer. He sounds as interesting and organized as his emails have indicated. They are ready for us. And a bonus he says the weather has come up beaut. I knew it would. Now if we can get there before it changes.
Dave.
Team Picture
Taken after their first presentation to Neepawa Rotarians and Guests.
Flight tickets received
The flight tickets have arrived and the excitement mounts. We leave at Sept. 30, 10:20 in the morning from Regina via Toronto (1.5 hour layover) and 7.5 hours and a few more time zone changes later into Dusseldorf, Germany Saturday at 6 AM. Just 40 minutes to change planes and another 1.5 hours flying and a reversal of a time zone lands us in Manchester at 7:15 AM where our English adventure will begin. The finalized itinerary which we received a few days ago is so detailed and complete. Many thanks to GSE Chair John Sayer and his District 1210 cohorts.
I received the 1210 DG's Newsletter describing the keynote speakers for the Oct. 14-16 Conference. I am looking forward to hearing and possibly meeting Tom Henderson, Shelterbox's founder. Our District 5550 is heavily involved in the Canadian arm of the Shelterbox effort.
It will be a great 4 weeks. Team Leader, Dave.
Neepawa Planning weekend
The team had a great weekend in Neepawa August 12 - 14. We prepped our presentation and thanks to Ivan the TV Guy we have our first run of it on DVD with professional green screen technology. The pressure was on for us to do a good job and the Team came through with flying colours. This morning we will make the presentation to the Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs of Neepawa. I will try to upload a picture of us after the presentation.
Captain Dave.